Container carriers are used frequently to unitize a plurality of containers, such as bottles or cans, into conveniently saleable quantities. Both paperboard and plastic are materials commonly used. Paperboard carriers generally comprise a box in which the containers are held. The box may be totally enclosed, or may have an open top, with individual compartments for each container. Disadvantages of paperboard carriers include excess material and cost. Further, once opened, an enclosed box no longer holds the containers securely. An open top carrier can spill the contents therein, if inverted.
Plastic carriers have achieved wide acceptance for their performance, low weight, low cost and versatility in being adapted for containers of different sizes and shapes. The general design for plastic carriers includes apertures in a stretchable plastic material. The apertures are sized and shaped to stretch around the periphery of the containers to be held, either bottles or cans. For convenient carrying of a group of containers held by the carrier, various types of hand-grasps are known. Automated machinery is available for attaching stretchable plastic carriers to containers quickly and efficiently.
In one such known design, the carrier is formed from two webs of plastic material juxtaposed over one another. Handle portions and container engaging portions are stamped from the juxtaposed webs simultaneously. The webs are fused or welded along selected portions. The resulting handle portion is thereby a double thickness of material, and the container engaging portions freely depend from the remainder of the carrier, at each side thereof. The container engaging portions are a single ply of material.
A trend in the beverage industry is to group larger quantities of containers, and/or containers of larger size. A large group of containers, whether bottles or cans, secured only by stretchable rings in an array of a plastic carrier, might have a feel of instability, with individual containers allowed to skew or twist relative to other containers in the group. Even with smaller quantities of containers, such as six-packs, the feeling of insecurity can occur as the containers twist and skew while being carried.
In co-pending, commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/251,312, a plastic carrier is provided with an array of rings, including one ring for each container, and a stretchable sleeve surrounds the group of containers. In co-pending commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/396,610 the stretchable sleeve is provided with an aperture through which a tab of the carrier is accessed to tear the sleeve and carrier simultaneously when releasing containers.
What is needed in the art is a well-secured container package that has an easy and convenient opening feature.